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Harvard Medical School

NEUROBIOLOGY: Study Sees Brain in Process of Seeing
Using a new microscopy technique that detects the activity of individual neurons in the brain of a living animal, R. Clay Reid and colleagues have gotten the first close-up look at the neural circuits that produce vision. The study appeared online Jan.19 in the journal Nature. Though the technique is far from ready for use in humans, the ability to do a cell-by-cell analysis of neural circuits in animals will help in understanding how the brain is wired for complex tasks. The method may also be a powerful tool for analyzing the pathologies of Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and other neurodegenerative disorders.

CELL BIOLOGY: Finding NEMO: Latest Crohn’s Disease Clue
In the Dec. 29 Current Biology, Derek Abbott (right), Lewis Cantley, and other team members report that the protein NOD2 and a molecular partner change the function of a protein called NEMO by unusual means, leading to increased inflammation in the gut when the process goes awry. The dysfunction apparently contributes to Crohn’s disease and may illuminate drug targets against the disorder.

PUBLIC HEALTH: Prevention May Double the Effectiveness of Global HIV/AIDS Treatment
This year, for the first time, international health organizations have amassed the money and political support to deliver antiretroviral therapy to people with HIV/AIDS in the poorest countries. But twice as many lives can be saved over time if the drugs are delivered with an effective prevention program, predicts the first long-term modeling study of the effects of the global HIV/AIDS treatment scale-up. The study, by Joshua Salomon and his colleagues, is published online in the Jan.11 PLoS Medicine.